Help me understand... pedestrian door only access to back yard
Is this a problem?

Ok, so our house is pretty much sold (under offer at the moment, expecting sold sign Monday).

Anyway there is a house DH and I really like (me probably more so than him) however it's back yard is fairly much a blank canvas.

What we've noticed is that you can only get to the back yard either through a pedestrian door at the back of the garage (attached to the house) or via a side gate that is lucky to be as wide as a normal door for people.

This is really putting DH off wanting to put in an offer on the property, however I think that it is fairly standard these days and wouldn't really cause us a massive problem. His argument is that because nothing is done in the back yard really, that wheelbarrowing things like concrete etc through the door and into the yard is too much hard work! My argument to that is, 'how often would you do it?'

Then comes the next drama, we have a spa that we'd like to move into the property and DH is telling me that given the limited access the only way we'd be able to get it into our yard is via a crane. Can they not be tipped on their side and wheeled through a door?

Please help, I really love this property and the fact that we can pretty much do our own thing with it as nothing has been done, but DH is not seeing my point at all.

We're renting so haven't had to do much to the garden apart from re-mulching, but it is accessed through a door at the back of the garage. We don't have a side lane at all as the house is joined to the neighbours the full length on one side and the garage on the other side goes all the way to the fence line.

We've had no problems with this at all. As long as the car isn't in the garage or driveway, it's no different to the garage not being there, except that you need to maneouver (sp?) things a little differently.

When we've had a roofing plumber and an air conditioning tech in to fix some problems on sections of the roof in the backyard, they've carried ladders and equipment through the garage door rather than treking through the house. No issue there either.

Then comes the next drama, we have a spa that we'd like to move into the property and DH is telling me that given the limited access the only way we'd be able to get it into our yard is via a crane. Can they not be tipped on their side and wheeled through a door?

I can't really help you with the rest, but I can answer this question! Yes there are special spa moving boards where you tip the spa up on it's edge onto the board and then you can wheel it on its side wherever you want. No need for a crane! We borrowed one from a local spa shop when we put Dads in his backyard for his surprise 50th present.

It would be a big deal to me. Can you knock out the back wall of the garage and put another garage door in? (So there would be a garage door at the front and back and you could drive right through). That would solve the access problems.

I thought this was pretty standard. I'm thinking back to houses I have lived and ones in my street and I'd say that is normal. We have access through a door sized gate off a shared drive on one side and through a double gate on the other, so not much different to what you described.

We're renting a house with pedestrian only access to the back yard - with a fairly high maintenance back yard. If it was my house the first thing I would be doing is putting a proper gate in that would allow trailer access - it annoys the crap out of me!

You said the side gate is only narrow - Is that as wide as it can be between the house and the side fence? Or is the fence wider, allowing you to put in a wider gate, or even take the fence down temporarily?

Im another that thinks side access/ROW is necessary. I grew up with real estate agents as parents, so I am biased as to what sells and adds to market value for properties. Sure people have lived in terraces for years, but mostly terraces had back lane ways (for the dunny man).

Is the height of the spa less than the width of the doorway? ours isn't, it won't fit through a standard doorway on its side.

Hi MrsLexiK, I'm not sure what you mean by back door but basically the garage is attached to the house (it's a modern house) and the only access from the garage is a pedestrian door so if you need to get things into the backyard, you have to take them through the pedestrian door. Or, on the other side of the house there is a really narrow gate however you could fit a wheelbarrow through there. Not sure if that answers your question?

I am not sure if spa would fit through the doorway even on the side. Rather frustrating, however was looking at getting a spa removalist to move the spa to the new house so they may have some ideas, not sure yet.

Can the pedestrian door at the back of the garage be changed to a wider door with a bit of building work? That might be an option to improve access.

We only have yard access through a narrow side gate after turning a narrow corridor between house and carport, or through the house. It made putting lawn in a lot of hard work as many many barrows of dirt had to be removed. But it really depends on just how wide that access is. There is a thing you can hire which I think is called a 'Kanga' or something which is about the size of a wheelbarrow but is motorised to take the load off. It's like a micro mini bobcat. I have friends who did a lot of yard work with the help of one of these.

We live on an escarpment and so only have side gate access to our backyard (as well as sliding door access through the house). It does mean that if you are doing things in the backyard, you need to carry buckets back and forth. For example, we remulched the backyard and it took a weekend of carrying buckets from the front to the back of the yard.

We also landscaped but luckily were able to get a little bobcat through which helped with the excavation. It will make things more expensive as it is harder to carry things bucket by bucket than it is to reverse a trailer into the backyard and drive it out.

That said, wouldn't it be fairly uncommon to be able to have trailer access to your backyard?